The website of a Miami-based networking and security solutions reseller became inaccessible Monday, shortly after the company began advertising an unauthorized Mac clone for a fraction of the cost of Apple's cheapest system. Dubbed OpenMac, the USD 400 offering from Psystar Corporation is described as 'a low-cost high-performance computing platform' based on the ongoing OSX86Project - a hacker-based initiative aimed at maintaining a version of the Mac OS X operating system for everyday PCs. The website is back online now, and the machine has been renamed to Open Computer. Update:Psystar says they will continue to sell the Open Computer system, despite the fact that it appears to violate Apple's EULA. "We're not breaking any laws," they insisted.

These are some stupid arguments that I am tired of hearing. I think that people who talk about this stuff have never actually used the operating systems that they reference...

- Linux works and is affordable (as in free). It still presents quite a few challenges for non-technical users (who would never care to install an OS themselves)

Linux: Yeah it's free. Yes it works, but still with different levels of refinement and may not work perfectly with your hardware. Patching the kernel to get a device working blows. And the applications that are available are pretty much limited to the standard open source or freeware fare which can pretty much be run on any OS...Mozilla, Open Office, Gimp, Google Earth. I mean you could run these applications under any OS...OS/2, FreeBSD, MacOS and Linux...it's all of the same boring application base when it comes to software on Linux. At least Linux has a good choice of file systems and has some kick-ass media players that blow away quicktime and iTunes.

- Mac works but is not affordable. At best, it is at least becoming more popular and this will eventually force the prices to go down.

Mac Works? I own a MAC and I think it sucks. Many open source applications on a MAC has to run in X11 (even OpenOffice unless you try out the beta Aqua version) which provides a choppy application interface at best on the MAC. Free Quicktime blows chunks...you can't queue movies in it and playback is choppy with any format outside of Quicktime movies. iTunes seems smoother to me on Windows than Leapard. There are not a lot of good Mac apps available that you don't have to purchase. If you going to run Microsoft Office (Apple advertises that it's now available for Mac) you mind as well run it on Windows. It's funny that Apple slams Microsoft for Vista and then acts like it was their good graces that forced Microsoft to bring Office to the Mac. Microsoft has already abandoned the Mac in almost every other way including dropping IE and Media Player for the Mac. Even Media Player 9 for the Mac is better than quicktime. You will be running VMWARE or Parallels with Windows if you want to use your Mac in a business environment. Why do people think the Mac is better for graphics? Adobe is only doing 64 bit apps on Windows due to Apple not extending the Carbon programming API to 64 bits. You can't even customize the window colors in Leapard. Coverflow is about all I can think of that you can get that is not available on Windows, and the feature is pretty much useless as it obscures the documents to the right and left of the one you are looking at. And what happened to those nice transparent windows? Mac is so over rated...people believe all of that S**T they talk about on the Mac commercials.

- Last, Vista is neither affordable, nor working... not as promised any way. At least SP1 improved things somehow, but it is still a lemon.

Vista comes with many new PCs...which means it will be affordable. Apple charges way to much for older hardware. Vista had many bugs in the beginning, but it still worked fine on a new Shuttle PC I put together. Service Pack 1 has caused Vista to be a pretty damn sweet desktop to work on. Any $600 PC should run it fine as you can get a Core Duo and 2 Gigs of ram for this amount of cash. People dump on Vista for the annoying securing features (which can be turned off). They also complain about application compatibility...but hasn't Apple broken this in the past more than once? For sure. I mean I still run Procomm for DOS on Vista x64 with VirtualPC (which is also free from MS).

If you sit down with a Mac next to a well configured Vista machine for a week, honestly you will find out that you can run WAY more applications on Vista even with broken compatibility from security improvements than Mac. I run Vista x64 at work and I have more apps available for even x64 than my Mac at home. Vista x32 on another computer I own runs practically any modern Windows app.

What is with the archaic Apple one button mouse support...even on laptops...one button! I hate holding down my mouse to do things that should be done on the right button. Even with a two button mouse, the right button menu never has the correct options in them! What is the point of hacking BIOS to get Mac OS X running on a PC when it's so lame? The attraction is similar to what Amiga people feel about Workbench.

I guess my point is here, it's all about applications and application development. Windows has the most apps, and Visual Studio is the king of application development hands down. XCode on Mac is a jumbled mess. I am going to give my Mac away to a relative soon as they have drunk the coolaid also. For the money that Apple charges, I will be sticking with PCs for a long while...XP is still available and Vista has some neat features.

Linux sucks. It's free, and it works, but it runs the same boring application base as any other system.

Mac sucks. Nothing free on the Mac, plus it has less apps than Windows. Apple doesn't mind with X11 not working correctly, which is a pain to run the boring application base. Plus they want developpers to ditch Carbon and use Cocoa, broking application compatibility. Microsoft has abandoned the Mac. And there is this one button mouse thing (frankly, I didn't expect that one, it's so "passé").

Vista, at least, doesn't suck. Everything is better on my Vista box. Yeah, there is some application compatibility broken, but look at the Mac, it's worse.